Brancaster Home Care

Brancaster Home care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Services provided for adults include personal care and bathing, a night service, supervision of medication, meal preparation, cleaning and laundry services, shopping, companionship and support to go out. The offices are situated in Kendal and are open usual office hours with an on-call service outside of office hours.

Not everyone using the service receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection 34 people were using the agency and 18 were receiving the regulated activity.

At our last inspection in August 2015 we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

There was an experienced registered manager at the service who was present throughout the inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People told us they felt safe whilst receiving support from staff at the agency and felt it was "reliable and "attentive". People had been involved in planning their care and were able to tell staff on a daily basis how they wanted their care delivered.

People told us that staff were caring and supported them in the way they wanted. People we spoke with who used the agency told us they were supported by regular staff who had got to know them well. Staff had received the training and support they needed to be able to carry out their roles.

Staff had received training on the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and they supported people to have maximum choice and control of their lives and support them in the least restrictive way possible. People were asked for their consent before care was provided and the decisions they made were respected. People told us they had been fully involved in the development and reviews of their care.

Staff told us they felt supported in their role and could seek advice and help from the management team at any time of the day. There were systems in places for staff to feedback any concerns or changes in care needs to the registered manager.

People received the right level of support they needed to take their medicines safely. Staff had received training in safe medicine administration and were able to give medicines to people when needed.

People were supported to eat meals of their choice and staff understood the importance of people having a nutritional diet.

People and their relatives were aware of how to raise concerns or complaints. They said they had been asked for their opinions and views during reviews and in surveys and if they were happy with the services they received.

There were processes in place to monitor quality and understand the experiences of people who used the agency. People and their relatives were happy with how the service was managed. People told us they would happily recommend the service.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found